New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meet on the situation relating to COVID-19 and vaccination with top government officials today at 10:30 am.

India on Friday reported 10,549 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. With this, the active cases stand at 1,10,133. The active caseload now accounts for less than 1 per cent of total cases, currently at 0.32 per cent, the lowest since March 2020.

So far 120.27 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.

Amid rising concern about a new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ first detected in South Africa, India also added several countries to the list from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing for infection.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare adds Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of new COVID variant ‘Omicron’ in South Africa.

Countries from where the travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India are South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Israel, Hong Kong, countries in Europe including the UK.

This variant is reported to have a significantly high number of mutations, and thus, has serious public health implications for the country, in view of recently relaxed visa restrictions and opening up of international travel.